Canal boaters like me face an existential crisis

[JoeC]

Another case of somebody signing up to something and when it does not suit them they moan about it and want it changed to suit them.

[Mike Coombes]

Getting back to the OP 'Headline', there are not too many canal boaters like her, are there?

 

With 170K electric boats and little experience.

 

Most liveaboards have a far more frugal vessel - and less expectations of paradise.

 

We hope to complete on a NB purchase Thursday. It will be used for extensive cruising but no full time liveaboard.

 

We are perfectly aware of the restrictions and possible pitfalls along the way - last years drought being a perfect example.

 

As a long time canal boater, as far as I am concerned, narrowboating, like our previous pastime, Yachting, is a 'Leisure Activity'.

 

Full time livboards CAN make a go of it, but very often expectation is greater than the reallity.

 

And, more expensive unless you live in a floating slum.

[Gybe Ho]

2 hours ago, magnetman said:

 

She may not mention dissatisfaction with the narrow beam but she is dissatisfied about something otherwise would not be complaining. It could be the width of the vessel. It's not necessarily something people would be conscious of.

 

 

She is proud of her boat and likes the lifestyle, this is evident in her videos. All that happened is that a journalist made contact, this offered publicity for her channel and so she engaged in a predictable complaint about rising costs. Any journalist could elicit much the same response standing outside Sainsburys and asking shoppers about the rising cost of a weekly food shop.

 

The Bargee contributions to the article are predictable, they are shrewd agents of media manipulation.

 

The only interesting take-away from the article is that negative speculation will continue to ferment due to the CRT decision hiatus between the Commission Report and a public announcement from the CRT with an action plan.

[magnetman]

It is very badly written as the journalist states that people without moorings will be paying more. This is not correct because the cost of mooring is included in the licence fee. That's the whole point. 

"By 2028, nomads will pay 25pc more than people who live on similarly sized boats but have a permanent mooring"

 

This is misleading and untrue. It needs more words. 

And the bloke who says "I own the Boat so I should not have to pay rent" had obviously swallowed a load of marketing rubbish from whoever sold him it. 

 

It's just another nonsense article. 

 

 

Misinformation for the public. 

 

 

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, Mike Coombes said:

Getting back to the OP 'Headline', there are not too many canal boaters like her, are there?

 

With 170K electric boats and little experience.

 

Most liveaboards have a far more frugal vessel - and less expectations of paradise.

 

We hope to complete on a NB purchase Thursday. It will be used for extensive cruising but no full time liveaboard.

 

We are perfectly aware of the restrictions and possible pitfalls along the way - last years drought being a perfect example.

 

As a long time canal boater, as far as I am concerned, narrowboating, like our previous pastime, Yachting, is a 'Leisure Activity'.

 

Full time livboards CAN make a go of it, but very often expectation is greater than the reallity.

 

And, more expensive unless you live in a floating slum.

We lived aboard full time for well over thirty years and adored it, now stuck in a house 😔

We did not try to take the piss and did a lot of proper ccing but when working took a mooring. Its fabulous if you embrace it and abide by the very few, very easy rules. 

[Tonka]

43 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

We lived aboard full time for well over thirty years and adored it, now stuck in a house 😔

We did not try to take the piss and did a lot of proper ccing but when working took a mooring. Its fabulous if you embrace it and abide by the very few, very easy rules. 

Exactly, I remember in the 1980's / 1990's there was a family who lived on a pair of ex working boats on the GU. His name was Terry and he made fenders for a living. His kids used to go to Flore school and he had no problems keeping to the terms and conditions

[ditchcrawler]

They are not getting much sympathy on FB

[wandering snail]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

They are not getting much sympathy on FB

As I expected, it's made good clickbait on the NABO page!

[Bristolfashion]

We're just moving onto a narrow boat to do a few years of genuine, full-time cruising after doing similar on yachts. As part of the process, we've checked out all the rules, costs and options. It's not really that hard.

[Alan de Enfield]

6 minutes ago, Bristolfashion said:

As part of the process, we've checked out all the rules, costs and options. It's not really that hard.

 

Yes its not hard to find - they are readily available.

 

Its not even hard to comply with them.

[Mike Todd]

22 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Why would anyone spend 170 grand on a boat without doing any research, unless they're an idiot? 

If you spent that in a house you'd expect to have searches done so you were aware of any oddities.

At least when i bought mine I knew enough to sort a mooring out first, if not much else. But surely you'd work out whether the t&cs were going to make life difficult for you.

I hate to hark on, but this is the third thread where it appears someone is complaining that the rules they signed on to shouldn't apply to them because they don't like them - one as mentioned by Alan above. I think people are getting atupider, possibly because of a diet of YouTube fantasies and prettied up TV shows.

Twas always thus! Plenty of stories of people moving from an urban house to the countryside and complaining that the farm field adjacent is being manured or used for animals, or that the church clock continues to chime on the hour - or even quarter - as it has done for a few centuries!

[David Mack]

22 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Twas always thus! Plenty of stories of people moving from an urban house to the countryside and complaining that the farm field adjacent is being manured or used for animals, or that the church clock continues to chime on the hour - or even quarter - as it has done for a few centuries!

Happened down the road from here in Mytholmroyd. One resident objected to the church clock's Westminster chimes which have rung every 15 minutes since 1848. Calderdale Council served a Noise Abatement Order requiring the bells to be silenced between 11 pm and 7 am. Since the clock had no mechanism to stop the ringing at certain times only the bells fell silent, despite many objections and a petition with over 1200 signatures. Subsequently funds were raised to fit a mechanism to the clock, so the clock now chimes between 7 am and 11 pm.    

[IanD]

35 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Twas always thus! Plenty of stories of people moving from an urban house to the countryside and complaining that the farm field adjacent is being manured or used for animals, or that the church clock continues to chime on the hour - or even quarter - as it has done for a few centuries!

Or people in urban areas moving in next to a pub -- that's been there since long before they were born -- and complaining about the noise or people outside. Hey, did you ever wonder why that house you snapped up was a bit of a bargain? 😉 

[Momac]

22 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I think the interesting bit is this:

 

"At present, there are 5,725 open enforcement cases. Although not all of these relate to itinerant boaters, it means that roughly one in six boaters are currently facing investigation. The majority of these cases have been opened because boats have been spotted on the water by the charity without a licence.
 

That's a remarkable statistic.

 

Is this a recent rapid expansion in unlicensed boats?   Or perhaps it has always been so and  has only recently been identified that 1 in 6 boats are unlicensed?

 

[magnetman]

It says enforcement cases not unlicensed vessels. 

 

 

What is a majority? 

 

The figure apparently is ten percent for licence evasion. Ten percent of 35,000 is, using my Faber Castell slide rule, 3,500. 

 

3,500 is a 'majority' if the total is 5,275.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Momac said:

... only recently been identified that 1 in 6 boats are unlicensed?

 

One in ten. 

 

 

The figures for this have been published recently. 

 

 

From the Commission report November 2125

 

Edited January 12 by magnetman

[Victor Vectis]

She must have a good agent as she is featured in the Torygraph money section today, page 6.

 

The piece goes on to say: These vessels (CC licenced) are concentrated in certain areas which the CRT claims has created challenges from an "operational, financial and reputational perspective"

 

Having travelled through London, and other places on the GU, last year I can see what they mean by "reputational"

 

[Gybe Ho]

On 12/01/2026 at 19:08, Momac said:

That's a remarkable statistic.

 

 

Not really. There are 4000 unlicensed boats on CRT waterways, add failure to provide BSS certificates, lapsed monthly DD payments, anti social behaviour reports, waste dumping, occupation of the towpath with personal effects and mooring overstays. There is your 5,725.

[Tonka]

Can't we all just comment on the article with one word

GOOD

[Gybe Ho]

On 12/01/2026 at 17:38, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Yes its not hard to find - they are readily available.

 

Its not even hard to comply with them.

 

The CRT Commission concluded otherwise hence their recommendation for better clarity through rule revision.

 

Since the present rules are clear to you, please explain:

1. What is the minimum distance a boat should move when a 14 day mooring entitlement expires?
2. Is the 14 day period measured in exact lapsed hours or rounded whole days or whole days +1?
3. What is the difference between a 48 hour and 2 day limited mooring?
4. How far should a CCer move a year to meet the minimum cruising range requirement? 

[Gybe Ho]

34 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

She must have a good agent as she is featured in the Torygraph money section today, page 6.

 

 

The media seem to have developed an interest in the vagabond nomadic lifestyle of continuous cruisers. It ticks many trendy urbanite boxes e.g. Offgrid, Low Carbon, Minimal Living, Low Stress, Mindfulness, Community, Mortgage Free

 

One of my regular YouTube channels "Inspired By Nature" announced yesterday he is being featured on Channel 4 in February. Some famous adventurer moved onboard for a week to experience canalboats.

[magnetman]

4 hours ago, Gybe Ho said:

 

The media seem to have developed an interest in the vagabond nomadic lifestyle of continuous cruisers. It ticks many trendy urbanite boxes e.g. Offgrid, Low Carbon, Minimal Living, Low Stress, Mindfulness, Community, Mortgage Free

 

One of my regular YouTube channels "Inspired By Nature" announced yesterday he is being featured on Channel 4 in February. Some famous adventurer moved onboard for a week to experience canalboats.

 

Improved regulations and the 'do one' theme. 

 

Coming to a thread of water near you soon.

 

[Bee]

Hmmm. To fall foul of the rules is unfortunate but as others have said a bit of research should have revealed the waterways rules and regs. I have some sympathy though for those who end up in trouble. The waterways magazines often run features on boats built for liveaboards, builders are happy to build expensive boats that really cannot be used as their customers plan, blogs and vlogs paint a fairy tale picture of living on board and being of a prickly nature I will do as I wish with my boat. So there. We lived on for 12 years and with care and some common sense it was OK but that was years ago and the world thought liveaboards were odd and slightly dangerous people. Nowadays there are thousands more boats and the same amount of space to put them and living on is hardly unusual. CRT need to publicise their own rules a bit more to stop people making big mistakes.

[IanD]

6 minutes ago, Bee said:

Hmmm. To fall foul of the rules is unfortunate but as others have said a bit of research should have revealed the waterways rules and regs. I have some sympathy though for those who end up in trouble. The waterways magazines often run features on boats built for liveaboards, builders are happy to build expensive boats that really cannot be used as their customers plan, blogs and vlogs paint a fairy tale picture of living on board and being of a prickly nature I will do as I wish with my boat. So there. We lived on for 12 years and with care and some common sense it was OK but that was years ago and the world thought liveaboards were odd and slightly dangerous people. Nowadays there are thousands more boats and the same amount of space to put them and living on is hardly unusual. CRT need to publicise their own rules a bit more to stop people making big mistakes.

I don't think the problem is CRT not publicising their rules, the problem is that anything they put out has negligible impact and views compared to the endless blogs/videos put out by those who support the NBTA view that they're persecuting poor itinerant boaters by trying to enforce said rules.

 

As Mark Twain said, "A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots"... 😞

[magnetman]

36 minutes ago, Bee said:

Hmmm. To fall foul of the rules is unfortunate but as others have said a bit of research should have revealed the waterways rules and regs. I have some sympathy though for those who end up in trouble. The waterways magazines often run features on boats built for liveaboards, builders are happy to build expensive boats that really cannot be used as their customers plan, 

I remember when this started. 

 

Someone realised you can sell canalboats 'off the shelf' (they must have had very big shelves) and that a microelectronics based inverter produces 230/240v "Mains Electric".  Nice and small and quiet. 

 

In the mid 90s when I first got into a residential Boat inverters were a bit unusual. An expensive luxury and there were those rather cool rotary converters which had a 12/24v motor which turned a 230V generator. 

 

How cool! Mains electric aboard without fuel burning machines !

 

Of course there have always been generators but this changes the story.

 

Point being that by marketing the foating metal box as something which has 240 electric (inverter) but failing to mention that you have to run the engine for a very long time you can sell things which look like floating apartments to ignorant people. The 240 is the key which unlocks the door to the sales.

 

Couple this with the general idea that a Boat means a Wonderful Life and you have a very good way to sell dreams to people which very often end up as nightmares.

 

Ker Ching.

[ditchcrawler]

15 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 In the mid 90s when I first got into a residential Boat inverters were a bit unusual. An expensive luxury and there were those rather cool rotary converters which had a 12/24v motor which turned a 230V generator. 

 

RediLine or similar name, about 50% efficient and the voltage regulation was crap. Run the engine and the vacuum cleaner went into turbo mode  

Edited January 17 by ditchcrawler